The State - News from Nov. 30, 1988

The Air Force is spending $90 million to rebuild a launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base to serve new Titan 4 rockets that will be used to put secret military payloads into space, an official said. The Santa Barbara County base’s Space Launch Complex-4 East has been used for Titan 34D launches since 1982 and was rebuilt after the April, 1986, explosion of a Titan 34D during launch of a classified payload. The Titan 4 is bigger than the Titan 34D, currently the military’s largest unmanned booster. The pad should be ready for the Titan 4 by midsummer, officials said. The Titan 4 will carry payloads previously intended for West Coast launches of the space shuttle.